This invention relates to a baking oven, and more particularly to an improved rotary baking oven for baking pizza pies.
There are four types of ovens currently being used for this purpose. These are stationary and rotary deck ovens, reel and conveyor ovens. The stationary deck oven provides the best baking conditions and complete flexibility but relies entirely on the skill, experience, and full attention of the operator to control the cooking time for each pie in the oven. A rotary deck oven as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,364 has a plurality of baking shelves mounted on a central flue pipe. U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,892 discloses a rotary oven with compartmented baking shelves and a compartmented heating system. Both rotary ovens normally rotate many times during the required cooking period and require the same skill, experience, and attention from the operator as the stationary oven. The principal advantage of the rotary deck ovens over the stationary ovens is compactness and ease of access to all parts of the cooking surface. Reel ovens operate functionally similar to the rotary deck oven except that the shelves are rectangular and are movably attached to the periphery of spokes as in a `Ferris Wheel`. Reel ovens share basically the same advantages and disadvantages in operation as the rotary deck oven. The conveyor oven provides a preset constant baking time in that the pies are baked on the conveyor through a covered fired oven and are fully baked at the receiving end. Therefore it overcomes the principal disadvantage of constant attention by the cook as in the stationary and rotary deck oven. However, the capacity for cooking is limited. Establishments currently using these ovens produce pies in approximately ten to twenty minutes. None of the above mentioned ovens can produce fully cooked pies rapidly at times of peak demand. As a result, there is a need to invent an improved oven. The objective of this invention is to provide a compact and fast cooking oven requiring a minimum of supervision and skill. The oven, as described in detail hereinbelow, with a five foot diameter turntable, can produce one to two 10" pies per minute if operated according to the invention.